Liver is a key organ performing many vital functions such as glucose homeostasis, xenobiotic detoxification or macromolecule synthesis. Hence, impairment of one of the multiple liver functions could have a dramatic impact on health. Worldwide incidence of acute or chronic liver diseases sets these pathologies between the 5th and the 9th cause of death, according to the World Health Organization. So far, the only curative treatment for end-stage liver disease remains liver transplantation. The outcome for patients who went through surgical liver replacement is rather good; with more than 95% of recovery. However, despite new surgical techniques, including split-liver and living-related donor, the increasing organ shortage leads to higher mortality on the waiting list. Therefore, an important goal in transplantation medicine research is the demonstration of potential use of liver cells in liver regeneration and treatment of hepatic diseases.
Liver cell transplantation (LCT) is an emerging procedure, involving the infusion of liver cell suspension in the portal system of the recipient. It aims to a recovery of the recipient's liver function as a consequence of engraftment and repopulation of the diseased parenchyma. LCT was first validated in animal models in which syngeneic hepatocytes have been shown to survive indefinitely and be able to correct various enzyme defects (for review, see Najimi and Sokal. 2005. Minerva Pediatr 57(5): 243-57).
In human, early studies were designed for the treatment of acute liver failure. These studies prompted clinicians to extend LCT to further indications and so far at least thirty cases have been reported worldwide for various defects (Strom et al. 1997. Transplant Proc 29(4): 2103-6). In the specific field of metabolic diseases, thirteen cases reported the use of hepatocytes, for the treatment of, among others, Crigler-Najjar syndrome type I, urea cycle defects or rare diseases, such as, e.g., infantile Refsum's disease. These studies demonstrated the engraftment of hepatocytes within the parenchyma and consequently an improvement of the patient status up to 18 months post-transplantation.
However, because supply of mature human hepatocytes for transplantation is still limited, in fact more or less as limited as the availability of whole liver, research also aims at obtaining transplantable cells from other sources, such as progenitor and stem cells, e.g., of embryonic or adult origin, that could be expandable, e.g., in vitro, and able to differentiate into functional mature hepatocytes, esp. in vivo after transplantation. Accordingly, there is a great need to develop new means that are useful in treating various diseases or conditions associated with liver associated diseases, particularly given the inadequate treatments currently available for the majority of these disorders.
Historically, embryonic stem (ES) cells were thought to be involved only in the organogenesis, due to their observed unlimited clonal division and pluripotent differentiation into daughter cells of entire tissues. On the other hand, regeneration processes in adult organs were typically ascribed to adult progenitor cells. Nevertheless, this theory has been revised in view of the discovery in adult organs of stem cells expressing known embryonic markers. Hence, characterizations of stem and progenitor cells are now based not only on the development process (embryonic versus adult), but also on the presence of specific cellular markers therein. Indeed, expression of cellular markers, such as membrane proteins or transcription factors, may vary along the differentiation pathways and reflect various stimuli (e.g., environmental stimuli) and cellular needs. Often, it is observed that in the course of a differentiation process, a stem cell will gradually cease to display markers indicative of its pluripotence, e.g., Oct-4, and being to express markers attributable to later stages, e.g., markers of a specific lineage. As a non-limiting example, Oct-4 may be progressively lost through maturation and, on the other hand, cells entering the endodermal lineage may begin to express alpha-fetoprotein.
Concerning liver regeneration through cell transplantation, several possible source cell types may be considered. For example, ES cells would be expected to be capable of regenerating any organ, due to their pluripotence. Indeed, this avenue is extensively explored in the art. However, ES cells are prone to generate tumour growth when introduced in any other tissue than in utero. Therefore, their use in vivo remains limited by the risk of carcinogenic deviation. Even successful prior in vitro differentiation of ES cells might not be safe enough to consider human inoculation.
A safer alternative would be the use of adult progenitor cells which, unlike ES cells, tend to display limited capacity for clonal division and their differentiation give rise to daughter cells with more limited fates. In liver, adult progenitors such as oval cells (cholangiocytes and hepatocytes precursors) or small hepatocyte-like cells have been described. However, their medical use is rendered difficult by their scarcity in normal adult organs.
Consequently, adult stem cells that would show capability of clonal division with reduced or absent risk of carcinogenic deviation would represent a great improvement in cell transplantation sources. Several types of adult stem cells are currently being evaluated in liver cell transplantation studies. For example, mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) from peripheral or umbilical cord blood are being studied due to their ability to trans-differentiate into more mature cells from another lineage. Moreover, hematopoietic stem cells from marrow have also been studied in terms of liver regeneration potencies.
While in vitro characterization of adult stem cells still presents difficulties, it is currently accepted in the field that such characterisation may advantageously involve detecting (i) markers of its embryonic origin or lineage (esp., mesodermal, endodermal, ectodermal or hematopoietic), (ii) expression of markers reflecting the level of differentiation and thus to some degree predictive of the different possible progenies and, (iii) in vitro or in vivo fate after differentiation. Consequently, characterisation and distinguishing of adult stem cells obtainable from normal liver may advantageously involve evaluation of the presence or absence of (i) marker(s) reflecting the complex embryonic origin of this organ, (ii) marker(s) of differentiation (e.g., presence of albumin) and, (iii) at least one marker indicative of the stem cell fate.
According to current knowledge, liver originates mainly from the endoderm and hepatocytes are part of the endodermal lineage. However, the formation of the hepatic cells also involves the interaction between the endodermal epithelium and the cardiogenic mesoderm. Furthermore, in foetal development haematopoiesis also takes place in the liver. Given this interplay during development, one needs to be open minded when contemplating markers present in adult liver stem cells, since markers of the endodermal, mesodermal and/or haematopoietic lineages might be expected.
When assessing the differentiation level and cell type commitment, different cell markers may be evaluated, as carried out further in this disclosure. For example, during the differentiation process of cells some markers may decrease or disappear, others may increase or may be gained, and yet others may be maintained all way to a specialised and functional cell. By virtue of non-limiting example, during organogenesis, i.e. during foetal life, hepatoblasts are considered to be the common progenitors of cells forming the parenchyma (esp. hepatocytes and biliary cells) and express inter alia cytokeratin-7 (CK-7) as well as CK-19, albumin and α-fetoprotein. In adult liver, a known common progenitor for hepatocytes and biliary cells is the oval cell, that expresses CK-19, albumin and α-fetoprotein. After differentiation into biliary cells, expression of CK-19 and α-fetoprotein is maintained while expression of CK-7 (considered a feature of more immature cells) tends to cease. On the other hand, hepatocytes maintain expression of α-fetoprotein and albumin, but do not show expression of the above CK. Also from this example, it follows that stem cell characterization may be complex, but that the assessment of markers may be advantageously used to indicate the cells' type or properties.
To the inventors' knowledge, previous studies described the isolation of progenitor cells from normal adult liver, which cells demonstrated more than one cell fate. An adult liver stem cell line capable of in vitro amplification and in vivo differentiation into hepatocytes, and preferably with only the hepatocytic cell fate has not been described. Moreover, previous studies used complicated techniques, such as FACS, calcium-implemented media or specific density gradients to isolate their liver stem cells.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide novel adult liver derived progenitor or stem cells with improved properties, and particularly useful in, e.g., liver cell transplantation. The invention also sets out to provide a simple method to isolate the said cells.